


Stay With Me

by bethacaciakay



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dependent On Each Other And Pissed About It, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-10-09 12:37:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10412286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethacaciakay/pseuds/bethacaciakay
Summary: Two unwilling partners with haunting pasts being forced to team up n a never-ending series of cases. What could possibly go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lenfaz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lenfaz/gifts).



> This is my GFSS present to @lenfaz, who is a precious pizza roll. Sorry for the crappy summary.

To say that both Detectives Emma Swan and Killian Jones were upset by the revelations of their new partners in the Storybrooke Police Department would be an understatement. Emma didn’t want to be paired with a reformed criminal who’s so full of himself while Killian didn’t want to be with a person who’s so prickly that they made the sharpest cactus look like a pillow pet. 

Their Captain, David Nolan, and his wife, Chief Snow Blanchard-Nolan, managed to insert their opinions of the matter, 

“Enough, both of you! My goodness, I feel as though I’m a teacher again, with those two kids that refuse to cooperate. So you both leave me with no choice but to treat you both accordingly. For as long as I say you’re each others’ partners, that is what how it’s going to be until I say otherwise. Understood, children?”

Both detectives replied begrudgingly, 

“Yes, ma’am.”

Captain Nolan stated in a relieved tone,

“Good. Now that that’s all behind us, for now at least, here’s y’all’s first case. To make it brief, a large man has been hoarding stolen goods for different members of the gangs. Name’s Anton Giant. According to the Records, he’s the only one living in his family’s old house down on Beanstalk Ave. What I’d like for you to do is bring Anton in unharmed as well as file reports in for each of the stolen items that are in his house. Here’s the search warrant. Think you two can do that without killing one another?”

“Yes, sir.” “Aye, mate.”

“I’m not your mate, Jones.”

Killian just smirks and mumbles,

“Well, not yet, anyway.”

Emma rolls her eyes and tells Jones to come with her in her yellow VW Beetle as she makes a quick phone call to Henry’s babysitter, updating her current status of her job as well s her ETA for home. Jones stopped and stated that they’ll take his black mustang, which he named ‘The Jolly Roger’ since her car has a tenancy to stand out to others. Singing exasperatingly, Emma agrees and asks Jones if he named his car based off the movies.

“Based off the book, Swan, not that godforsaken films. And I’ll be driving there.”

“Well, don’t think I’m taking my eyes off you for a second.”

“I would despair if you did.”

It takes close to thirty minutes to find Beanstalk and thirty minutes of no personal conversations came up until one did, courtesy of Killian Jones. 

“First time on Beanstalk, love? You never do forget your first. You know, most men take your silence as off-putting, but I love a challenge.”

“Just, concentrate on driving us there, and I’ll concentrate on getting us there.”

“No, you're afraid, of many things: afraid to talk, to reveal yourself, to trust me. Things will run a great deal smoother if you do.”

“You must be used to people not trusting you by now.”

“Ah, the jerkass thing. Well, I don’t need you to share. You’re something of an open book. At least to me, you are.”

“Is that right?”

“Quite. Let’s see, what motivates you to get your job done is so that you can get home to your son.” 

“That’s not perception, that’s eavesdropping.”

“True, but you don’t want to abandon him the way that you were abandoned.”

After a pause of silence, Emma challenged,

“Well, was I?”

“Yes. It’s the reason that you’re so prickly to everyone you meet. Also, when you see those children who’ve been placed in a group home, they all have identical looks in their eyes. The look that tells you that someone lied and left.”

“Well, buddy, my home ain’t a group home.”

“Yet an orphan’s an orphan.”

For a while, neither of them spoke. Theo one sound Emma made was a wrangled and broken whisper,

“How?”

Jones, being who he is, replies,

“It’s like I said, open book. Love has been all too rare in your life, hasn’t it? So tell me. Have you ever been in love?”

“No. I have never been in love.”

Before they knew it, they arrived at the right place, at least according to Google Maps. After prepping themselves for the eventual fight, Swan-Jones decided to come up with a game plan. Killian suggested that they wait until Giant fell asleep as he handed his keys to her. Emma countered by stating that it would be riskier to wait, which to her surprise, he agreed grinning, 

“Point taken. You’ll without become one hell of a detective.”

They move into their positions when suddenly, Killian starts to ring the doorbell one too many times, Emma whispers if he’s trying to get himself killed. She admires his unwavering bravery and willingness to do such a thing, especially when the person that they’re apprehending is around the same size as Andre the Giant. Killian, being the idiot that he is, tells him that they’re with the police and that they have a warrant to search his house. Anton immediately starts attacking him, giving Emma a valid reason to use her taser on the Giant. 

Upon seeing what she had done, Killian tells his new partner,

“I don’t mean to upset you Emma, but I think we make quite the team.”

With that being said, Killian uses his handcuffs on an unconscious Anton, and together, the partners set off to search for the treasure room. Upon finding the treasure room, Killian encourages Emma to try out something called trust. She rolls her eyes before going into the room. The duo managed to find all the items that David had mentioned having belonged to different gangs. The one that stood out to them both for some reason was an intricate compass. 

Killian held his hand out for Swan to take, only for her to chain it to a built-in cage. When Killian asked in a broken voice why she was doing what she was doing, Emma replies,

“I just can’t take a chance that I’m wrong about you. I’m sorry.”

Then Emma Swan did what she’s done for as long as she could remember, she ran. She managed to ignore Jones calling out her name, for her to come back, as well as shove Anton into the back of the Jolly Roger, and down to the police station.

The trouble came crashing in as soon as David asked her where Killian had been, to which she replied that he stood behind at the house and made sure to report the various objects that he found. Before David could question her further, a voice stated,

“She’s right, Dave. She used the Jolly to transport Giant while I stayed behind and filled out these.”

Jones then plopped a large stack of reports on the Captain’s desk. After looking through the first few reports, David thanked both of them and told them that they’re free to go. 

Before they both left, Emma grabbed Killian by the arm and said,  
“Thank you, Jones, for not ratting me out.”

Jones sighed and replied, 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, and thank you, Swan.”

Confused, Emma asked him why, to which he answered coldly,

“For showing me that I can’t trust you now, in any way.”

With that said, he turned and walked out the door, leaving Emma stunned, alone and ashamed with how this partnership had started out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was several days into her job before Emma decided to make some sort of effort to apologize to her partner for her rash decision that day. He hadn’t spoken to her unless he was passing messages along to her or a minor case that he let her work on. Each time she insisted,

“I’d appreciate some backup on this case, Jones.”

And each time, he replied, 

“I think not, Swan. I know already how capable you are of handling yourself, so why bother asking help from someone you clearly don’t trust?”

With that being said, he walked away, leaving Emma more ashamed and guilty than she did the day before. 

Several weeks later, David calls them both into the Chief’s office for a new case. This one involved a madwoman named Cora Mills, whose works on a science that experimented on the increase of power in her “element”. She had kidnapped a young woman named Aurora for means to test the limits of her power. David finishes the statement with,

“You’ll meet an officer from another district who’s been on the missing person’s case for a while by Mill’s Inc. Together, you’ll both will gather information regarding anything related to her works. Am I clear?”

Both detectives nodded their heads and stated affirmation. Together, they both went to the Jolly and used Google Maps to get them to their destination. Jones requested that they mute the Google Voice, and when Emma asked him why, he replied,

“Well, we can’t afford to let the ‘Queen of Hearts’ know we’ve arrived, can we? Besides, I can’t stand the bloody Google voice. She says most of the names wrong.” 

Emma allows herself to smile a bit before shifting her focus on the lab before them. Soon, they locked and loaded themselves before exiting the Jolly. They crouched down before taking out the guard, who turned out to be prepared. She pinned Emma down and stated that she was an officer and that she was here on a case. Jones held up a badge confirming that the woman was telling the truth and addressed her as Detective Fa Mulan. Baffled, Mulan grabbed her badge and asks,

“How did you get this?”

“Call me a pirate, but your back pocket is where you put your smart phone, not your badge. Unless you have a dumb phone in one of your front pockets, in which I can understand sparing yourself the humiliation, given the digital age we’re in. In all seriousness though, put your badge in the other front pocket.”

Emma nearly laughed at her partner’s sense of humor given the circumstances, but had to compose herself for different reasons. Killian then stated in a serious tone,

“Swan, you and Mulan go and find Aurora as well as whatever info you can find regarding her research. I’ll find Cora and more vital information as well as other connections.”

As he walked away, Emma called out,

“Jones, Jones wait! Please don’t do this. I have a son at home, he needs me.”

Jones gazes at her as he walked towards her and said coldly,

“Perhaps you should have considered that before you abandoned me on Beanstalk.”

Emma stated in a tone of indifference,

“You would’ve done the same.”

Jones came up close and whispered, 

“Actually, no.”

Emma is silent for a while before Jones handed her the keys to the Jolly before turning around and heading off the other way, leaving Emma with Mulan. Together, they manage to find Aurora and get to the Jolly when some kind of force that nearly knocks them over. Aurora states that it's Cora’s magic. Emma raised an eyebrow skeptically, which caused Aurora to explain,

“Well, I don’t know how else to describe her work, so I just call it magic because that what it looks like.”

“Well, if it’s that powerful, then I need to get my partner out of there. Here, drive to the SPD. If we’re not back here in twenty minutes, get the hell out of here.”

With all that being said, Emma ran back to the building that appeared to be falling apart, which only made her run faster. Right before Emma got to the center of the base, Mulan was right next to her, stating that she was here because Cora still had Aurora’s heart and wasn’t going to leave without it. 

Together, they entered the room and found a large, blue vortex swirling around the middle of the floor as though it were no big deal and a nearly old woman stretching her hand out toward’s Jones’ chest, which gave Emma all more reason to fire her gun. Cora yells out in pain, Mulan moves around the room, dodging Cora’s fire along the way while Emma managed to free her partner from being magic bound to the floor. When they did get up again, Jones suddenly leaned backwards to reach a satchel that was headed into the vortex,. He then tossed the bag to Mulan, stating, 

“I may be a reformed criminal, but I bristle at the thought of a woman loosing her heart, unless it’s over me.”

Mulan nodded her head in thanks and ran off. Emma saw Jones whip his gun out and aim it at one of the clones that was starting to take human form.

“I had no idea you had such a soft side,” Emma remarked at her partner.

“I don’t I just like a fair fight. On my six, Swan.”

Back to back, they aimed at the clones (more like corpses) that were leading them to the exit. Before they could open the door, Cora appeared out of nowhere directly in front of them. 

“Now where were we, Hook?”

Cora began to reach her hand out towards Jones’ chest and Emma didn’t hesitate to shove her partner out of the way and felt immense pain as the woman’s hand clawed at her heart. 

“Foolish girl, don’t you know? Love is weakness.”

Emma’s mind immediately shifted to the different members of the people she called family: David, Snow, and Henry. She looked the old witch in the eye and declared,

“No, it’s strength.”

The moment Cora let go, a wave of light coursed through the building, knocking the old woman out. 

“What the hell was that?” Emma gasped.

“That’s our queue to leave while the old hag is still knocked out. We’ll figure it out when we reach the station, Swan, but we have to get back.”

Together, they ran out of the lab and were pleasantly surprised to see the Jolly Roger still parked with their passengers in the back.

When they arrived back at the station, Snow took both Mulan and Aurora into her office for questions regarding the different events that took place at the lab. David congratulates the detectives for being quite the team today.

As the two walked out of the station and towards their apartments that were conveniently in the same complex, Emma tentatively asked Jones,

“So, Jones, are we ‘quite the team’ as David kindly put it?” 

Jones sighed before answering, 

“As far as our partnership regarding work, I’d say we’re slowly but surely reaching that point.”

“Why slowly?”

“Because, Swan, trust doesn’t happen after one cracked case. It takes time and patience as well as the willingness to see it through to the end. Much like all things that make life worth living.”

“Meaning?”

“I still don’t trust you with anything.”

Before Emma could come up with an angry response, she breathed in through her nose before asking in a surprisingly calm manner,

“So, when will you trust me completely?”

“The same moment when you decide to trust me completely.”

Emma scoffed before stated disbelievingly, 

“How do you think that’ll work for you?”

Jones smirked his signature smirk before he responded, 

“Well, Swan, trust goes both ways.”

With that being said, he walked away, leaving Emma baffled not only by his boldness in being brutally honest, but also by his use of the Star Wars quote.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think. Comments work the best for me.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. Comments work the best for me.


End file.
